


Maskless Advice

by Lady_Katana4544



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Gen, M/M, Slash, Violence, some language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-01-22
Updated: 2011-01-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 20:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2038395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/pseuds/Lady_Katana4544
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skyfire finds out just why Optimus keeps his mask on around him even in their quarters. And then asks for advice from the one who knew the Prime better than he.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Maskless Advice  
> Rating: T  
> Characters/Pairing: Optimus, Skyfire, Elita One, ensemble; Optimus/Skyfire, implied Elita One/Arcee, past Orion/Ariel/Dion  
> Summary: Skyfire finds out just why Optimus keeps his mask on around him even in their quarters. And then asks for advice from the one who knew the Prime better than he.  
> Prompt: "giving relationship advice"  
> Disclaimer: Recognizable characters are not mine.  
> Warnings: violence, some language, slash, femslash  
> Notes: Ficlet is inspired by both the rare pairing prompt and a [picture](http://mmmmmr.deviantart.com/art/Beyond-his-battlemask-69239188) of Prime without his mask on DA.

The battle was intense enough that he had been dodging random weapons fire from both the ground and air forces of both sides. Something that seemed to amuse Starscream oddly enough that he was openly taunting him with both word and weapon. 

Though the battle had been made slightly easier now that Elita One had brought her group to Earth and combined them with the Earth Autobots for the time being. 

Something that he was grateful for as it meant that hopefully his Prime would come back with less damage than usual. Though it was the issue that the arrival of Elita and her group had some tension into the atmosphere of the base.

Not that there hadn't already been some underlying tension brewing. Tension that he and Prime hadn't already dealt with yet.

It had something to do with the fact that Prime didn't seem to want to take his mask even just to share a small kiss. He would yes, but he wouldn't take off that damned mask of his.

What was he hiding that he didn't want him to see him?

Questioning the others about either yielded no answer or simply answers that he should talk to Prime about it.

A loud cry went into the air, he whirled around in the air just in time to see Megatron somehow manage to hook his fingers around the Prime's battlemask and tear it away, sneering at the surprised sound that the other mech had made at the loss of the mask covering. As the Prime began to fall away from the Decepticon leader, Elita charged in snarling with Arcee and Ironhide on her trail as other Autobots either recoiled from their Prime or like Ratchet and Prowl, had moved to help him up from the ground.

Oh.

Oh dear.

And then he understood why Prime wouldn't let him kiss him or even see without the mask on. There was old damage that the mask had kept hidden from, most of his right face plating was gone along with a small part of his mouth. 

Why hadn't he gotten that repaired, when it had happened? Better yet when had it happened for that matter?

His mode's optical sensors indicated that Prime was watching him from below even as the 'Cons were routed and Ratchet grumped at him at the needed repairs. Once the small damages were taken of care and conferring with Elita One, Prime ordered that everyone return to base. 

It was at that point that he had somehow lost track of his lover. That Prime had been taking lessons from Jazz in avoiding others he didn't wish to see. Not even Teletraan would tell him where Prime was hiding. Was the Prime unsure of what his reaction would be, if they were to confront each other so soon after the battle?

For some reason he found that he wanted to know if this was reason why Elita One and the Prime were no longer lovers. Had she seen the damage done his face and recoiled from it?

Or was there another reason why for they weren't together?

How -

"Skyfire?"

He froze in startled surprise and glanced down to his right, to find Elita One with Arcee, Firestar, and Chromia watching him from their table. Primus, how he had managed to get himself so lost within his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed where his feet were taking him?

"Elita One."

Something in his tone, must have caught her attention for Elita One gave him a long look before saying something to the other three femmes. He noted the looks that the other three femmes gave him, especially noted the one that Arcee was currently giving him.

Then Elita One stood up and made a polite gesture towards him.

"Skyfire. Please walk with me."

He nodded slightly and allowed himself to walk away with the pink femme down the halls, careful to make sure that he didn't squish his current companion or the other Autobots trying to get around the two of them. His sensors told him that Arcee was following them and wondered why that was, as they came to a private room he glanced between them both.

"Arcee, please wait out here for us. This is a private matter."

He noted that the femme looked ready to object, but seemed to back down only after glaring at him before nodding and staying out in the hall. What did she think that he was going to do to Elita One? Slag her straight into oblivion?

One if he did that to her, then Prime would likely never forgive him. Let alone speak to him. Two Arcee would try to anything against him, if he did something accidently to the femme leader.

"Something on your mind, Skyfire?"

He glanced over to Elita and found her leaning against the only table in the room watching him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"I wondered if you had known about the reason why, Optimus, wears that mask of his."

A slight smirk appeared on the femme's faceplate, before it vanished just as fast as it had appeared.

"I've known about that since before he became Prime. Has he told you much about his past, Skyfire?"

"Only that he hadn't always been a Prime and that Megatron was the reason that he is what he is now, whenever I asked."

This time the femme snorted softly before composing herself again and rubbing one of her helm fins gently.

"That sounds like Optimus for you. Foolish mech is protecting you as much as himself. Not that I can blame him for wanting to do that."

Skyfire twitched his wings slightly at her words, which meant the femme leader did know some things that Prime apparently wanted to protect him from. What was it that Prime would possibly want keep him from knowing or even protect him from?

"Can you tell me what's going on with Prime? Or have you been sworn to secrecy over it?"

At the question, the femme leader openly laughed, it was a humorless and almost a haunting sound to it without malicious intent.

"I am not sworn to secrecy, Skyfire. It is a painful part of the past that we don't often speak of. Not that we don't talk about it from time to time. Listen closely because I would hate to repeat myself."

He nodded slightly and listened as she proceeded to speak of the Prime's past.

"Back then we had different names, I was called Ariel and he was called Orion Pax. We were both dock workers and we were even lovers back then. Our third was a mech called Dion. The war was only a brewing thought, Orion and Dion however wanted no part of it. Then one cycle we met Megatron for the first time..."

0000

He hadn't meant to hide himself away from Skyfire, the old wound of his was not something that he would have expected to ever reveal, at least not with Megatron's help of course. 

Definitely not how he would have wanted to reveal an old wound to anyone, including his lover.

But perhaps in the future after the war, when there was time of no need for hiding behind masks. When that did happen, his spark could rest easier and he wouldn't have to worry about loosing anymore close friends or lovers.

First however now that his battle mask was in place, he would find Skyfire and try to find out where they stood now in their relationship.

Though to make things more interesting, the base sensors indicated that Skyfire was with Elita One in one of the meeting rooms. What could they possibly be up to in there?

As he approached the room, he noted the slight smirk on Arcee's face and wondered what she was finding so amusing, though the door opening to admit the other two Autobots with some words that he was surprised to hear.

"Now Skyfire, I better see something happen with you two. Or I'll be kicking both of your pretty afts especially if you allow him to keep things hidden again."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: Maskless Advice  
> Rating: T  
> Characters/Pairing: Optimus, Skyfire, Elita One, ensemble; Optimus/Skyfire, strongly implied Elita One/Arcee, past Orion/Ariel/Dion, implied past Optimus/Elita One/Ultra Magnus  
> Summary: Skyfire finds out just why Optimus keeps his mask on around him even in their quarters. And then asks for advice from the one who knew the Prime better than he.  
> Prompt: "figuring out where things stand"  
> Disclaimer: Recognizable characters are not mine.  
> Warnings: violence, some language, slash, strongly implied femslash

"Now Skyfire, I better see something happen with you two. Or I'll be kicking both of your pretty afts especially if you allow him to keep things hidden again."

He stared after the pink femme in slight surprise as she patted his arm, holding back a chuckle, and dragged off a bemused Arcee in the likely direction of their quarters before shaking his head as he went into the room. 

Belated he wondered just what the femme had told the bigger mech. He hoped that she hadn't been too threatening to the mech, otherwise he'd need to have words with Elita.

_Again._

Not that he didn't mind her being protective and caring for him in her own way, even though they weren't lovers. Ultra Magnus was protective of him in his own way, but at least he wasn't too foward about it as Elita was. Some past short time lovers had either been scared off by her or they had demanded that he stop speaking to her and even seeing her.

Something that he hadn't been able to do, especially when it came down to the role of leadership, when he would have needed the femme leader's input and even friendly advice from her. It had angered those few lovers that he had had and they left him through various ways which included deactivation or long term capture in which they lose their minds completely. 

A fate sometimes worse than even death itself that he would never wish upon any other Cybertronian, his lover or otherwise.

Would Skyfire do that to be and be like all the others? Or would he a different choice?

He found the primarily white flyer, staring at the top of holo board in front of him looking completely as though he was staring completely through it. What was he thinking about or even seeing?

Skyfire hadn't heard Prime approach him, his processor was very much occupied with thoughts from what Elita One had shared with him.

_"Dion and I as Ariel loved Orion very much. But that changed along with everything else after that cycle of encountering Megatron. We were unprepared to even fight him, let alone protect ourselves or any friends still functioning.."_

_"We were nearly killed then, Orion Pax was found first and Alpha Trion rebuilt him into the mech you know now as Optimus Prime. Optimus returned for both Dion and myself..."_

_"I was rebuilt into Elita One and Dion, bless his dear spark, was rebuilt into Ultra Magnus. For some reason the bond between us three was no longer the same anymore.. it had been unrecognizably changed though not entirely broken yet. Though Alpha Trion would sometimes hint that we had nearly lost him on while he was being rebuilt..."_

_"According to Alpha, I alone was rebuilt to be the Prime's mate and equal in all things. It was not a position that I wanted... as Ariel I had loved Orion Pax, however as Elita One I did not love him or share the same feelings as he still did in that way anymore.."_

_"He, being the kind mech that he was - still unchanged yet by the war - offered to several choices, I could stay by his side as his lover and eventual mate equal in all things to him or I could stay by his side as a friend and an officer though still equal to him.."_

_"I chose the second of the two choices.. I still was as protective of him and Utra as they still were of me. Something that their past berth lovers did not like.. fools wanted them to choice either me or them. Wouldn't let them have both and eventually they all disappeared."_

_"Be warned, Skyfire. Neither of us will let you get away with hurting him. I won't let you hurt him. We'll be watching you two closely. There will be dire consequences if you do hurt him."_

_"I won't."_

_"Good mech."_

Something touched his hand bringing him out of his thoughts, not enough though to actually make him look at the other occupant just yet.

"Skyfire?"

This time however he did acknowledge the other Cybertronian, half expecting Elita One to still be with him and waiting for some strange reason that he didn't know for the answer that he would have already given her. His spark fluttered gently in its casing though at the sight of his lover, the Prime.

When had he gotten there? How long had his processor been mulling over what Elita One had shared with him?

"Prime."

Silence fell between them as words failed to leave Prime's vocalizer while Skyfire turned around to face him better. Both waited for the other to say something to break the silence.

"Optimus, can we talk?"

"We can do that, Skyfire."

He did his best to appear calm and confident on the outside as they went from the meeting room to his quarters and sat on the berth together, but his spark reeled in its chamber. Those words were the same ones that his past lovers also used before they would talk and eventually he would be left alone. 

Was Skyfire about to do the same as they had done and leave him?

"What do you want to talk about, Skyfire?"

The flyer smiled only slightly before he reached and gently tapped on the battle mask, which surprised him slightly and the new battle mask opened with a soft click as it receded away further into his helm, revealing the old injury that he had never thought to get repaired. It was probably another reason out of many reasons that all past lovers had left him.

"Any more old wounds that you would be hiding from me, Optimus, that I might need to know about?"

"Not that I know of, Skyfire."

The large mech nodded slightly as his hand fell back to lightly hold one of his hands.

"Where do we stand now, Optimus? Where do we go from here?"

Instead of answering right away, Optimus looked down at their joined hands and squeezed Skyfire's hand gently before he looked back up to him.

"I would like for us to remain together. With as little secrets between us as possible."


End file.
